Tag: military tribunals

From Al-Jazeera:

An Egyptian court has upheld a decision by Hosni Mubarak, the president, to have 40 members of the opposition Muslim Brotherhood group tried by a military court.
Essam Abdel Aziz, a supreme administrative court judge, reversed a ruling in a lower court passed on May 8 that had declared the president’s decision invalid.
The court ruling clears the way for the resumption of the military trial of the detainees, some of whom have been in police custody since December.
Brotherhood lawyers said the judges examining the case were all working for the government as paid consultants and could not be impartial.
Abdel Moniem Abdel Maqsoud, a Brotherhood lawyer, said: “All these [judges] are assigned … to the ministries and the presidency. So of course there’s an objection to this body hearing a case … where the opponent is the president.”
The ruling last month in the lower court had said that the referral of the detainees to military courts in February had been illegal, and the defendants should be tried in civilian courts.
That ruling required the authorities to free the detainees, but the government often ignores court release orders in cases involving opponents, and they have remained in detention.

Here’s also a video report by Dream TV:

The Tagammu el-Khames Prosecutor extended the detention of Abdel Moneim Mahmoud and 18 Muslim Brothers detainees by another 15 days. No more details available yet on whether the detainees have started a hunger strike as they were threatening today or not.

And on another front:

CAIRO, May 8 (Reuters) – An Egyptian court has ruled that a decision by President Hosni Mubarak to transfer 40 Muslim Brotherhood detainees to military courts was illegal, security sources said on Tuesday.
A lawyer for the detainees said the ruling effectively required their release, but said there was no guarantee the government would implement it.
“The court has, thank God, accepted the appeal and decided to stop the President’s decision … as such, that entails their release,” said lawyer Abdel Moniem Abdel Maqsoud.
“Will the government carry out the ruling, or will it as usual procrastinate? That’s the question that everyone’s waiting to have answered,” he said.
Such a ruling, while not unprecedented, is exceptionally rare as it is effectively a challenge to the president, who ordered the transfers.
Legally, the ruling is binding and effective immediately.
But the government often ignores court release orders in cases involving opponents.
In its ruling the administrative court said that the Egyptian constitution and international law required that individuals be tried before their “natural” judge — civilian courts in this case.
It also said the law recognized no “absolute authority”, a reference to Mubarak.
Mubarak referred 40 members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including third-in-command Khairat el-Shatir, to military court on terrorism and money-laundering charges in February, the first such referrals since 2001.
The detained Islamists appeared before a closed military tribunal in late April, but the session was postponed after only a single defence lawyer turned up.
The Egyptian government has stepped up a crackdown on the Brotherhood since the group’s strong showing in 2005 elections gave it around a fifth of seats in parliament. It has targeted Brotherhood finances and detained or arrested hundreds.
A set of constitutional amendments approved in a referendum in March gave Mubarak broad powers to transfer anyone suspected of “terrorism” to military courts, known for tough and swift verdicts. But the order transferring the detainees to military courts was made before the constitution was changed.